Daniel Corkery's Cultural Criticism: Selected Writings

Let Ireland Pride – in What She Has

Let ireland pride – in What She Has1 Would it not sound odd if one asked, is france swamped culturally?2 it would, because we all know france produces its natural quota of culture. So do we. More than our quota.The only trouble is that our finicky critics refuse to accept it.They say – ‘oh, yes, ireland produces culture alright.’ They have to say that, because the list of names honoured by as good critics as Mr. de Blácam or Mr. Corkery (But outside ireland – ‘a man is never thought a prophet, etc.’) is impressively long. But they add – ‘only it is not irish culture – not native – not racy of the soil.’ Most people stare at this statement in amazement.They say,‘But, after all, when we go to the abbey it seems to us that we are in a place where the whole thing reeks of ireland. and take, then, peadar o’donnell; and yeats; and, at the very least, o’flaherty’s Famine, and his short stories, and The Martyr; and Hail and Farewell, nobody but an irishman could have written it; and o’Connor’s Guests of the Nation; and austin Clarke; and Higgins’ poems about the West;3 and scores of other poets and playwrights? Not native! Not racy!’ ‘No!’ growls Cassandra. ‘No! No! ireland is a nice country, a good, holy, happy, flawless, merry country.These fellows often poke fun at us. Just as that scoundrel Molière did at the french – he should have been censored; and that ruffian Swift at the english, and Sterne, and just as rabelais did – they nearly got him, and serve him right, too. and the english and americans praise these fellows.That shows there must be something wrong with them. No, they are not irish! We won’t have them!’ The fact is that people who, like de Blácam and Corkery, refuse to take pride in our literature, do not really want literature at all. They want their own particular brand of literature.They are exclusivists. They are in the best of company. Goebbels and Hitler are laying down precisely the same excluding law for Germany that de Blácam and Corkery want to lay down for ireland.The whole lot of them say, in effect – ‘You write what we want or you can get out.’ (Mr. de Blácam says so precisely in his article of last week – he says some of us are ‘writing what the nation does not want.’).4 isn’t that a nice intelligent attitude for a man of letters? Supposing the nation went Communist and said to Mr. de Blácam: ‘you write what the nation wants or get out,’ what would he say? He would say what every self-respecting man or artist must say to anyone who takes up a Hitlerian attitude. He would reply: ‘We will write what we honestly feel to be the truth, and we will not get out. This country is our country just as much as yours. our conception of nationality is just as sound as yours. you may gag us. you may side with the big battalions. But you will do so as a renegade from your own loyalties, and you will play false by the 232 Daniel Corkery’s Cultural Criticism. Selected Writings nation in the end by trying to steamroll it into a level submission to the ideas of a few men.’ and de Blácam would say that rightly. Mr. Corkery displayed this nationalistic complex in its extreme form when writing last month in Ireland To-day: – ‘if there ever does come into existence a corpus of literature fittingly named anglo-irish literature’ – oh, those definitions: – ‘it will have been built up by such books as our people, through very affection, keep from fading away. if a novel . . . is merely glanced at by the people of this country it may prove to be quite an excellent novel, but a piece of anglo-irish literature it is not likely to turn out.’5 ‘it may be an excellent novel . . . .’ you see Corkery doesn’t care about that very much.The thing is that it must be of the Hitler brand. (pure aryan for Hitler. So out on his neck goes the Nobel prize winner,Thomas Mann.6 and out go a score of others with him.) pure irish for Corkery.and out on his neck goes W.B.yeats, another Nobel prize winner, and a score of...